


3,000

by MaryTylerMorgue



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Endgame AU, Endgame fix it, F/M, Father-Daughter Relationship, Fix It, Gen, I just needed to write a tony survives fix it, Morgan a little more damaged than I thought she would be, Not Canon Compliant, Time Travel, Time Travel Fix It, Tony survives, because Tony Stark deserved better, science behind this time travel is nonsense, time travel in general makes no sense, tony deserved better
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-09
Updated: 2019-05-09
Packaged: 2020-02-29 04:51:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,824
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18771553
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaryTylerMorgue/pseuds/MaryTylerMorgue
Summary: Morgan Stark wants her father back and will do whatever it takes to get him back.





	3,000

**Author's Note:**

> So I know the rules in Endgame say that if you change something in the past you create a new parallel timeline instead of fixing that future and that the movie says bad shit happens to reality without the stones but this is fanfiction and that doesn’t apply here.

“ _I love you 3,000._ ”

The message from the helmet had been converted and moved to something more portable and easy to carry when she was around 10 and she’d long ago memorized every second of the flickering hologram. She could recite every word and tell you every detail about him in those last few seconds of his goodbye.

But it would _never_ be enough.

Beyond the message, her memories of him were blurry and dreamlike hazy images that she wasn’t even sure were real or wishful thinking on her part. She’d been five when he died but he’d never really left her life. Giant murals on brick buildings of the man that saved the universe but would never be there for her haunted her steps through New York.  Television specials, books, and documentaries splashed across screens but never showed how tight he hugged her or how soft his smile was. People spoke of lives he'd saved and quick sarcastic meetings paired with the random selfie or autograph. They never talked about how he was when he was with her mother. The ridiculous giggle he had when her mom would whisper something between just the two of them or the way he always seemed to touch her mother like a touch starved child.

She had a hero for a father. A hero that everyone seemed to be able to tell her about. Everyone had stories and memories.

Everyone except her.

And now…

_Mama._

A stupid car accident took her beautiful vibrant mother away from her and at 23 she'd become an orphan. It hadn’t even seemed real when Happy called her with a soft cracking voice and the most devastating news she’d gotten since she was five years old. It had been quick they’d told her. She hadn’t suffered. Like that mattered when she would never see her again. 

Grief welled within her as she sat on the cold floor in her black dress, her fingers curled around the whiskey bottle. Her throat was tight and her eyes burned as she remembered how just hours ago her mother’s body was lowered into the ground.

_They’re both gone…_

Taking a long pull from the bottle, the amber liquid burned and she couldn’t stop the tears from falling. Pressing the familiar button on the back of her necklace shaped like an arch reactor she watched the hologram flicker to life.

‘ _Everybody wants a happy ending. Right? But it doesn’t always roll that way.’_

He was right. He was always right. Happy endings don’t always happen and it seemed they even more so didn’t happen to the people that deserved them.

Her mother deserved a happy ending. Her father…

_…I love you 3,000_

Rewind.

Play.

_…I love you 3,000_

Rewind.

Play.

_…I love you 3,000_

Rewind.

Play.

Downing the last remaining drop she let the bottle clang loudly against the tile floor and let her head fall back and tried to calm her breathing as she began to pant. Tears blurred her vision and her throat constricted.

_God, it hurt._

It wasn’t fair _!_

Five years of happiness that she was too young to fully remember was all that she had. That was it. _Five years._ Five years where her mother’s smile made her pretty blue eyes sparkle and crinkle with contentment. Five years of her father’s bedtime stories and late night juice pops. And then time was up. That’s all they were allowed to have before it was all ripped from them and a constant grey cloud hung over their heads. The ‘ _what ifs_ ’, the dreams, the _nightmares_ …

Was she going to forever spend her existence missing the people she’d lost?

Looking up at the smiling image of her father as he looked down at her, she wished more than anything she could fix it.

Her chest ached and her eyes swam as she stared at the hologram when a sudden thought occurred to her.

_You’re a Stark._

_You do whatever it takes._

Her eyes narrowed and her spine straightened. Adrenaline rushed through her veins and her heart thudded loudly against her chest.

_Whatever it takes…_

* * *

 

Four Months Later

“ _Morgan, please give me a call back, I haven’t heard from you in a while. Starting to get worried,_ ” Peter’s voicemail sounded over the speakers as she poured over equation after equation.

Her blood thrummed with coffee and Adderall as she pushed herself to the point of exhaustion as FRIDAY helped her through it all. She’d barely left the basement in the tower that she’d converted to her lab and refused to move.

Her father’s research and subsequent hand-mounted device to navigate the quantum realm had been locked away with the suits the Avengers had worn on their trips to the past and even FRIDAY couldn’t get into her father’s ‘ _Pandora’s Box Protocol_ ’ Even if she could there was no way of getting Pym Particles.

So pushing away the one sure way she _knew_ would work she had to find a **new** way.

If her father could build an arc reactor and the first Iron Man suit in a cave in Afghanistan and then over a days work to fix the technology for time travel, she could damn well attempt to create her own way to go back.

_She was a Stark after all._

Morgan knew that if she succeeded that she would have to be careful and she knew that even if she went back she may just end up erasing herself from existence. The ‘Grandfather Paradox’ weighed heavily on her mind.

_If you were to go back in time and kill your grandfather when he was young, then you would never be born and if you were never born then how could you go back and kill him?_

She wasn’t going back to kill her grandfather but the rules still applied. What if she changed something? Spoke to the wrong person at the wrong time that caused them to be a half a second early as they walk across the street and their hit by a car? Little ripples could create big waves.

Days bled into weeks before speed comes into the picture and a small spark of hope is ignited in the pit of her stomach. It’s warm and it curls against the grief that still struggles to overwhelm her, licking at the pain with a soothing warmth that energizes her spirits.

According to the Theory of special relativity, when one travels at speeds approaching the speed of light, time slows. Her major problem? Time only flows in one direction-forward, and she needed to go back.

A year goes by and two weeks before Christmas she’s come to the understanding that no matter what she tries, speed was not a viable option.

That comforting flame in her gut flickered out until her limbs went cold and despair returned to sit on her shoulders like a new age Atlas with her shoulders so heavy. She got drunk that night and tried to block out the whispering _‘failure’_  that tickled the corners of her mind.

Instead, she pressed the back of her necklace that was shaped like a miniature arc-reactor.

_…I love you 3,000_

Rewind.

Play.

_…I love you 3,000_

Rewind.

Play.

It was a cold December Thursday that she drowned her failure and disappointment in the liquor cabinet on the main floor. Her right hand pressed against her forehead and her left trailing circles around the wet rim of her glass she barely spared a look as Rhodey took a seat to her left.

“Morgan,” was all he greeted in a sad sort of rumble.

She winced as she thought of the disappointing picture she made in front of her father’s best friend.

“It’s been a while,” he took the glass from her and downed the rest.

Casting him a glance she shrugged her shoulders. “Sorry.”

“Nothing to be sorry about,” he responded before turning to her completely.

“Uncle Rhodey…” she started to say really not wanting a lecture but he cut her off.

“You’re so much like Tony.”

The words caught her off guard and her chest ached and her jaw ticked.

“No, I’m _not_.”

“Yes you are. You’ve locked yourself away all determination and fire just like he use to. You lose yourself in your work. You forget to take care of yourself…”

Warmth bloomed in her chest at the thought of sharing some part of him.

“Like your mom too….”

Tears spring to her eyes and she blinked them away.

‘ _Love you, honey.’_

Her mother’s last words echoed in her mind and she reached for the bottle again only for Rhodey to pull it away. She glared up at him.

“I’m going to fix it,” she blurted out, defensive and so sure of herself.

His forehead furrowed and concern flashed over his features.

“Fix what?”

“All of it. I’m going to figure out how to time travel. I’m going to save dad and then we’ll save mom,” her voice cracked toward the end and she sharpened her eyes toward her uncle as pity overtook his features.

“Sometimes… bad things happen and we can’t fix them-“

“I’m going to.”

“You can’t-“

Standing from her seat, her chair falling to the floor in a crash she glared at him in hurt and anger.

“I’m going to fix this. _Whatever it takes.”_

“Morgan..” Rhodey tried again his voice somehow softer and his eyes glossy.

She couldn’t force down the myriad of emotions running through her and with her voice tight and spine straight she grit her teeth and all but growled. “Just leave if you don’t think I can do it.”

“Morgan, please…”

“Goodnight, Uncle Rhodey,” she whispered and walked behind the bar and grabbed an unopened bottle of scotch. She ignored the heavy tumble of guilt that rolled in her stomach as he left without a word and poured herself a full glass and dived headfirst into the soothing comfort of liquid pain relief.

She was drunk for three days, smelling of sweat, booze, and vomit she lives in the dull haze of alcohol until on the fourth day FRIDAY woke her with a suggestion of a bath and a nice breakfast. Morgan snorted to herself then winced before she gave FRIDAY a sleepy ‘not today’. However, the AI apologized in a calm voice and the windows suddenly bleed harsh sunlight into every corner of the room. Morgan curled in on herself and groaned.

“Apologies, Miss. but my first directive it to always protect you. My code won’t allow anything else,” the AI informed.

She lay there for a moment and with a wince, she pulled herself upright and ran a shaky hand through her hair.

“Fine,” she rasped out.

Her shower was cold and her coffee stale but she sat on the couch her knees curled up to her chest, her free hand moved to her throat to touch her necklace only to realize she’s left it in the bathroom. Her neck felt naked and her heart felt heavy as she rubbed the skin just below the hollow of her throat and in a soft voice she spoke.

“FRIDAY?”

“Yes, Miss?”

“Can you play the message?”

_…I love you 3,000_

Rewind.

Play.

_…Everybody wants a happy ending. Right? But it doesn’t always roll that way…_

* * *

 

Speed discarded she looks at her second option. Wormholes. General relativity allows for the possibility for shortcuts through space-time which has the potential to bridge different points in time. It was the only other viable option left and as she researched and experimented her body all but vibrated with unrestrained hope.

2 long years crept by in isolation and determination. Locked away in her tower like a damaged princess prone to bouts of drunkenness and depression as she tried every equation, read every theory she could find and spoke to any scientist that was willing to talk.

The public gossiped and the tabloids hounded the building but a few months in they seemed to get the picture that she wouldn’t give them a story they slowly slunk away. An odd story or two popped up over the years but it was never accurate and often completely ridiculous.

SI moved forward in its own success as she told Peter to take it over “ _until I’m done”_ she’d said. He’d asked what she was doing but she only shook her head and asked him once more. He’d taken a breath and for a moment she saw his eyes go distant and sad before he once more focused on her and nodded his head.

Her friends had long since gotten tired of her isolation and the calls and texts had stopped.

Everything had stopped for her.

_Everything except the mission._

It was a hot June weekend that she’d gotten her first break and in her happiness, she’d reach for the phone to call her mother when she realized what she was doing and froze. She’d swallowed thickly and put her phone down before spending the next week on a bender that left her body sore, her stomach sour and her mind foggy.

‘ _I love you 3,000.’_

_Rewind._

_Play._

She focused once more and 7 months later the first prototype was ready to its first run.

_and nothing…_

It had been a complete failure. She’d spent the 6 hours after getting drunk and destroying the machine. When she was done her hands were bleeding and broken glass and twisted metal littered the floor. FRIDAY’s sympathetic voice had calmed her and played the message as she fell asleep on the floor.

The next day she tried again and the day after that and the day after that. She wouldn’t give up. _Couldn’t._ Her mom wasn’t a quitter and her father sure as hell wasn’t. There was no way she was going to disappoint them.

She would fix it.

_**She would fix it all.** _

_…I love you 3,000_

Rewind.

Play.

_…I love you 3,000_

Three and a half years in she almost gave up. Dragged down with failure after failure and the heavy weight of her self destructive tendencies she thought about throwing in the towel but FRIDAY was there to speak calmly and replay the message as she held a framed photo of her mother and father in her shaking hands.

Giving up just _wasn’t_ an option.

Two weeks and three days after her 28th birthday it was time to try again.

“FRIDAY. Run video. Check calibrations,” she instructed and watched the output levels on the holoscreen fluctuate.  “Attempt #391, trial 23 of WAR ‘ _WORMHOLE ARTICULATION ROVER’_.”

Her heart thundered against her ribs and her hands shook as she stepped onto the platform in the large circled ring.

“Initiating sequence in…” FRIDAY’s voice spoke calmly, “5.” ‘ _Please work. Please work.’_ “4.” A loud whirring sound began from the ring that arched over her head and she closed her eyes as the sound made her ears pop and her stomach flip.  She envisioned her mother’s smiling face and her short bark of laughter alongside her father’s dark eyes and bright smirk. “3.” _Her mom’s warm hug_. “2.” _Her father’s goodnight kiss_. “1.”

Her vision suddenly bled to white and sound ceased to exist. Coldness washed over her from the crown of her head, down her body until ice reached her toes. Heavy pressure on her chest amplified until it felt like it would cave in but suddenly felt as though it was pulled the opposite direction. Painful beyond anything she’d felt before she opened her mouth and screamed as the pressure in her chest built and built until she was sure she was being ripped apart.

Then it stopped.

Panting like she’d run a marathon her body shuddered before she fell to her knees. Blinking rapidly she opened her eyes only to shut them when dizziness crashed over her.

“Ugh, God,” she mumbled to herself and pressed her gloved hand to her throbbing head. Sluggishly trying once more she opened her eyes and realized she was on the platform of WAR but the room looked different. “FRIDAY,” she slurred but heard no response. “FRIDAY!” she tried again.

Placing her palms on the ground she grunted with the effort to push herself to herself upright and up on shaking legs. Warmth ran from her nose and with the back of her trembling hand, she wiped gently and pulled away to see blood. “Fuck,” she groaned.

“You are trespassing on Stark Industries property. Security is on its way. Do not move,” a voice suddenly spoke loudly making her wince.

“What?”

“Identify yourself,” the British voice demanded.

Shaking her head against the painful throb at the base of her skull she took a step forward and promptly stumbled down the steps of the platform and fell on her backside. Breathing deeply she winced against the pain and forced herself to stand once more.

_Please…_

She thought the word over and over in her mixed up and fuzzy mind as she took a step forward toward a sudden noise coming from her left.

“Excuse me!” a familiar voice boomed and her head snapped up and she stumbled again from the dizziness that accompanied the movement.

The figure that came around the corner was familiar yet different at the same time and looking at his dark hair and slightly thinner frame her heart took off like a racehorse and adrenaline flooded her veins.

“Miss, you’re going to have to come with me,” he spoke again.

A small laugh of triumph let her bloodied lips and she smiled at the blurry figure.

“Happy…” she slurred as he drew closer. “It worked… I did it…”

He paused a foot from her and confused drew lines in his face. She took a step forward and her knees gave out from under her and she fell into a pair of sturdy arms and blackness.

* * *

Consciousness came back to her quickly and her eyes snapped open to a white ceiling and a sterile antiseptic smell in her nose. She swallowed and winced at the dryness in her mouth and the throb against her skull as she moved too slowly sit up only to abruptly stop at the metal clang from her sides. Looking over she sees her wrists in handcuffs attached to each side of the bed. She makes a frustrated noise and pulls a few times on the metal and scrunches her nose against the nasal cannula on her face.

“Shit,” she curses.

“Sounds appropriate,” a new voice drawls sarcastically and she freezes instantly.

She knows that voice.

_“I love you 3,000.”_

_His_ voice

He looked almost exactly like she remembered him and her eyes instantly tear and she gasps as she looks up to see her father leaning against the far wall, his arms crossed over his chest.

“I did it,” she whispered to herself, her mouth dry and her tongue heavy. “I actually did it.”

“What did you do?” the man she hadn’t noticed at first but as she turned to her left she blinked in shock. Bruce Banner. The very _human_ Bruce Banner touched her wrist and gave her a look.

Her gaze moves back to the father, his hair a little darker but overall the exact same as she remembered him. He raises both eyebrows at her in return and looks curiously at her.

“How’d you get in here?” he asked but before she can even open her mouth he spoke again. “I watched the surveillance footage. You appeared out of nowhere. Where’d you get your tech?”

“FRIDAY.”

Tony turns to Bruce. “Is she concussed?” and then turns to her. “Not when, where?”

Bruce walks toward her and moves to shine a light in her eyes but she waves him off with her tethered wrists and he moves away. She looks back to her father clears her throat.

“I’m not concussed,” she growled out half from the pain in her head and half in agitation. “I built it with the help of my AI. Her name is FRIDAY.”

“You built an AI?” she could hear the doubt in his voice.

“My father did,” she admitted.

“Sounds like a smart man,” Dr. Banner looked at her before looking to her father and then back again.

Her face softened and she grinned. “He was.”

Her fingers itch to touch her necklace, to play the message but she shook off the urge. She didn’t need to. He was right in front of her. He was alive and less than 3 feet away from her. She didn’t need the hologram.

“Does anything hurt? Can you tell us your name, Miss?” Dr. Banner questioned and moved to touch the back of her head.

Though her head still ached the pain was beginning to lessen and she shook her head and focused on what she was going to say. She had a couple of options. Give them a fake name and try to fix things from afar or tell them everything. She really didn’t want to try and go it alone. She’d spent too long alone and see that while she was smart, she couldn’t take on Thanos by herself. But if she told them would they ever believe her?

Turning her head she locked eyes with ones that looked exactly like hers and spoke truthfully.

“My name is Morgan Stark.”

“Bullshit,” her father said quickly and Bruce raised his eyebrow. “How old are you?”

“28.”

“See,” he pointed triumphantly and snapped his finger toward her. “Not the father.”

“You asked how I got here. I time traveled. “

“Okay, Marty McFly,” Tony rolled his eyes and looked to Dr. Banner as if saying ' _Crazy people_ '.

“This isn’t a joke!” She implored. “Thanos came…he used the infinity stones. Half of everything was wiped out. The Avengers lost. So many people…  I was born just after. You’re my father. Pepper Stark is my mother-“ She rambled and watched her fathers face morph into denial, to sadness back to denial.

“Not possible.”

“Pretty sure it is.”

“Not,” he sounded like a child.

“Please, I just… take a DNA sample let Wanda look in my head… “ she tried to think over her options. She never really thought out what would happen if they didn’t believe her.

“Who’s Wanda?” Dr. Banner asked confused.

_Who’s Wanda?_

What?

“What year is it?” she asked softly, events running through her mind.

“2014,” Tony supplied.

“Shit.”

“Whats shit?” Tony asked.

“I’m earlier than I thought.”

She had aimed for 2017 so she was a few years too soon.  Her plan could still work she’d just have to tweak a few things and move a few things around.

She _couldn’t_ ’ fail.

Not when she’d come this far.

“K. I’ll bite. Who’s Thanos?” her father asked as he took a step closer.

She looks up to him from her bed. “What you were trying to protect the world against. He was behind the Battle of New York. Loki was just a pawn. He wants ‘ _balance’_ and to get it he needs the infinity stones… he’ll wipe out half the population and after that… “ she cuts herself off and swallows around the knot in her throat and the burn behind her eyes.

“Do you have any proof?” Dr. Banner asks.

It’s silent a moment as she thinks over the timeline and information she’d learned over the years. “Ultron.”

The word draws a shocked look from both men and they shoot each other a look.

“He was supposed to be good ‘ _A suit of armor around the world’_ … but things happen… he was bad. He tried to destroy you all. Destroys JARVIS and levels whole cities…You two are the only ones who know about him, I think.” they just stare… “You don’t believe me.”

“It’s a little out there,” her father shrugs carelessly but she can see something like a shadow in his eyes.

“Like I said. Take my blood.” She thrusts her arm out. “We’ll talk when you get the results.”

They look at one another when Tony shrugs, Bruce responds in kind before going to the drawer and pulling out the kit to draw blood. A quick prick and a band-aid later Bruce gives her a small unsure smile and turns to her father. Tony shoots her one last look and follows his friend from the room without a word.

After the door is closed she leaned forward almost curling in on herself and tries to rub her forehead with one of her trapped hands. After she successfully pulled the cannula away from her face she laid back against the bed and shuts her eyes.

She’d done it. She made it back. She’d seen her father. She’d spoken to him. A smile tugged at the corner of her lips as she felt happiness bloom in her stomach.   

_“I love you 3000.”_

She falls asleep with a  smile on her face and into a dream that’s more of a memory of her father tucking her into bed with juice pops and a bright smile.

She wakes an hour later with Tony leaning against the wall, his arms crossed and a blank face.

“Maury Povich says, ‘you are the father’,” she tries to joke in her sleepy voice.

His mouth only slightly turns up at the corners before he wipes it away again. “Okay, let’s say I believe you,”

“The test…” If they’d done the test she knew it would come back the way she knew it would. She was the daughter of Tony Stark and Pepper Potts.

How could they deny the science?

“Yeah I know, still hard to believe,” he shrugged and took a deep breath before letting out. “Anyway. Let’s say it’s true and you’re the next bouncing baby Stark and you’ve somehow invented time travel…”

“You came up with it first,” she admitted a little sheepishly.

“I did?”

“Yep.”

“Sounds like me…” he nods to himself before continuing. “Why?”

“Why?” she asked confused.

“Yes, why, Minnie me. Why time travel?” he moved forward and took a set at the end of her bed.

“To fix it,” she admitted.

“Thanos, right?”

“…Yes.” She said after a brief pause. While, yes it was about stopping Thanos. It was about saving her family more.

_Selfish? Yes. But she just couldn’t find it in herself to care._

“What is your plan?”

”Wanda.”

Her father paused in confusion and made a motion with his hand. “Second time I’m hearing this name and I still don’t know who she is.”

“The only one that can destroy the stones,” she said with finality.

A sudden knock raps against the door twice before it opens to reveal Happy’s serious face.

“Team’s ready for you,” he says to her father before sneaking a quick look her way. It only lasted half a second but she could tell he was a little confused and a whole lot warry of her. He quickly looks back to Tony and then turns around and is gone just as fast as he arrived.

Looking back to her father she rattles her wrists against the bed. “Can these come off?”

Her father looks at her and a look that she can’t quite discern flashes over his face before its back to normal. He reaches for her wrists and unlocks the cuffs but before she can feel any kind of relief he’s snapped the cuffs together to her wrists are free from the bed but not the cuffs.  “Not yet, Minnie Me.”

“Great,” she mumbles to herself.

“Come on,” he says and for the first time since she was five, her father touches her. With a gentle yet firm grasp, he helps her from the bed and she stands on shaky feet.

_‘I love you 3000.’_

Pushing away the memories that come with his touch she blinks away tears and looks to him curiously. “Where are we going?”

“The team is waiting on you,” Dr. Banner says as they walk from the room and he begins to walk with them.

“Waiting on me?” she asks shooting them each a look.

“You’re the star attraction today,” Tony informed her.

“Do they believe me?” she asked but she really meant to ask was ‘ _Do_ **_you_ ** _believe me?’_ but she didn’t.

Her dad shrugs. “Don’t know yet. Haven’t told them.”

She nods in acceptance hoping that they will all eventually believe her. They had to.  Failure wasn’t an option. _Not with this._

Reaching an elevator the three of them boarded and rode the next 5 floors in silence before exiting the elevator.  Tony guides her forward with a hand on her shoulder. Together she, her father and Dr. Banner walk down a brightly lit hallway, through a pair of double doors and into a large carpeted room with a large round table in the middle of the room in front of a wall made of windows. Inside were a lot of familiar people who stood when they entered.

“Hello. My name is Steve, this is Natasha, Clint-“ the Captain started to speak and point to his respective teammates but she smiled and shook her head.

“I know who everyone is,” she grinned at the man she’d heard so many stories about.

Her father chuckled behind her and leaned a little over her shoulder and spoke to the Captain.

“Girl says she’s my kid and traveled through time to stop a douche named Thanos.” Everyone stared in confusion, shock, and disbelief as Tony shot everyone a look and motioned with his hands toward her. “Avengers, kid. Kid, Avengers.”

“My name is Morgan,” Morgan stared at her father with an un-amused glare before she looked around at the occupants of the room. She was not afraid to admit to herself that she was just a tad intimidated by all the hero’s looking at her.

Sure she’d met Clint but only a few times. Dr. Banner took off when she was young and Thor only stopped in once. She’d never met Steve or Natasha before. So meeting all the Avengers, her father's teammates was a dream come true.

“Time travel?” Clint spoke next to Natasha.

“Is that even possible?” Steve questioned.

“Not yet it isn’t,” Dr. Banner replied.

“Do we even have any proof?” Natasha asked out loud.

“Besides my blood test?” she asks.

Widow calmly raises a brow and shrugs. “Maybe you’re a genetic experiment.”

“…I’m not…” unsure of what to say to that accusation. She trailed off and her mind turned to something else she knew. “Laura and the kids…”

Clint shot up from his seat like it was on fire, his chair falling to the floor. Natasha’s calm demeanor shifts and now she glares at her.

“How do you know ?” Clint growls.

“I told you. I’m-“

“From the future?” Tony adds in.

“Yes.” She glared and grits her teeth.

“Then what is it?” Thor questions suddenly. “What happened that made you travel through time?”

“Where do I start?”

“Beginning is usually the best place to start,” Captain Rogers eventually said with a kind voice.  

She took a deep breath and let it out through her nose as she thought back to all the stories Happy told her, all the articles written on the anniversary and the documentaries she’d watched over the years.

“Before… well everything, six singularities existed. Sometime after the big bang, the singularities were formed into stone. The Infinity Stones. Each stone represented a different aspect of the universe. Time, Space, Mind, Soul, Reality, and Power. The Space Stone is the Tesseract,” she spoke plainly and Captai- _Steve’s_ head snapped up.

“That didn’t look like a stone,” he put in from his seat and she nodded her head.

“Sometimes the stones take other forms like the Aether was the Reality Stone.”

“The Aether?” Thor questioned. “Asgard has the Aether and the tesseract..” he trailed off, his brows furrowed.

“The Mind Stone was Loki’s scepter, the Power Stone was an Orb was on Morag’s Temple Vault though it may be with the Nova Corps by now. I’m not sure.  The Time Stone is with the Ancient One here in New York and the Soul Stone is on Vormir.”

“Are you speaking English?” Tony asked in a deadpan voice. “Cause some of that made no sense.”

“Can you not tell your own language?” Thor questioned seriously before turning to Dr. Banner. “I thought he was a genius?”

“Can it, Point Break.”

“So those are the Stones,” Steve interrupted. “What happened when this… Thanos got them?”

The room quieted and she felt all eyes fall on her.

“The Decimation.”

“Sounds ominous,” Hawkeye said after a moment of pure silence.

“Thanos made a gauntlet and he gathered all of the stones. Everyone tried to fight but in the end, he snapped his fingers and then… gone. Half of every living creature in the universe turned to ash. They say it was bad. People committed suicide. Cities were destroyed… so many people…” she trailed off as she thought of the stories her mother use to tell her of those five years when so many people had disappeared.

“Any of us…?”Dr. Banner asked quietly and she couldn’t’ help but wince.

“No one in this room but…” she licked her dry lips and shot a glance to Clint. He stared back with a stern face that expressed a hint of fear.

“Who?” he asked.

“The whole Barton family,” she spoke softly. “Except for you.”

Clint rested his forehead against his clasped hands and breathed deeply. He said nothing but she understood. What can you possibly say when someone tells you your family will disintegrate?

She turned to look to Steve. “Sam Wilson… James Barnes.”

The Captain’s spine went ramrod straight and his eyes widened.  

“ _They say it was bad’”_ Natasha spoke suddenly and Morgan met her eyes. “You speak like you don’t know. Shouldn’t you know what it was like?”

“It’s complicated.”

“Uncomplicated it for us,” Tony said leaning back in his seat.

“Five years after the decimation a few of you show up to… Tony’s house. You had a plan. Use time travel to get the stones and use them to bring people back,” her cuffed hand came up to rub against her forehead and on a sigh, she continued. “…Tony didn’t _want_ to-“

“Why the hell not?” he cut in confused. “Why wouldn’t I want to fix things?”

“Because you had a family,” Clint rasped as he shot her a look. She nodded and turned to Tony.

“You were afraid that you would lose me in the process.”

Tony looked at her with serious eyes but didn’t speak. Instead, he just nodded his head to her to continue on.

“You eventually give in on the stipulation that those five years stay intact. You figure out time travel and then everyone goes to different points to get the stones. You’re successful. You get the stones and Dr. Banner uses the gauntlet to bring everyone back…”

“Sounds like a happy ending,” Thor smiled.

“Thanos from a different time came and there was a battle… he wanted the stones and he almost got them but…” the words got stuck in her throat and nausea rolled in her stomach.

“What happened?” Steve questioned this time, his voice soft and sympathetic.

She looked at him with watery eyes before turning her face to look at her father. His brows furrowed and his mouth turned down.

“My father got it first. He used the stones to destroy Thanos and his army… it killed him in the process.”

Everyone went quiet and she could see them digesting the news in different ways.

“So I die saving the universe,” he stated.

Her jaw moving she nodded her head.

“Then why come back?” he set forward in his seat.

“Why?” she asked confused. Wasn’t it obvious?

“Yeah, why? We won. Why change it?”

How could he not understand?

‘ _I love you 3000.’_

“Because not everyone won.” She stared imploringly at him, hoping he understood and by how his face softened ever so slightly he understood. “Yeah, a lot of people got their happy ending but not everyone did,” she turned to the Black Widow. “You die, and you’re one of the ones that don’t come back.” Morgan turned to look between the shocked faces. “My mom...” her voice broke and she watched her father straighten in his seat. “My mom, she lost a husband. The love of her life.” She stared at her father and saw his clenched jaw and his flared nostrils. “I lost my father…” she paused a second to gather herself and find her voice. “Not everyone got a happy ending.”

“Jesus,” Dr. Banner whispered to himself as he shot Natasha a look.

“I’m sorry,” Steve apologized and she blinked her tears away before clearing her throat.

“I came back to fix it. We have to fix it.”

After she spoke the room fell back into silence and she didn’t look up again until she once again thought of her necklace. She shifted in her seat and her cuffed hands came up and her fingers traced over the bare spot that her necklace usually laid.

“Did you find my necklace?” she asked not looking up.

“JARVIS?”

“The device and any item found in proximity have been moved to the ‘Hulk Approved’ room. I have Mr. Hogan bringing up the necklace now, Sir.”

“Thanks, J.”

A few members in the room started to speak lowly to each other but she tuned them out. This wasn’t the way it was supposed to go. No. Scratch that. She’d never really thought of how it would go. Never planned past getting WAR to work and the outcome of saving them.

Would they every truly believe her?

Could they stop what was coming?

Had she just made things worse by being here?

So many questions that she didn’t have the answers to but, she thought to herself, it was a risk she was willing to take.

The door opened and Happy entered and laid a plastic bag with her necklace on the table.  She quickly reached forward but another hand was quicker and shot forward and snatched it before she could.

“Arc reactor…” he cocked a brow in her direction and she sat a little straighter in her seat watching, hoping that he would be careful when he handled the jewelry.  

Suddenly blue light shot from the reactor necklace and a slightly older Tony takes shape in front of them all.

‘ _Everybody wants a happy ending. Right? But it doesn’t always roll that way. Maybe this time. I’m hoping if you play this back, it’s in celebration.’_

Morgan looks around the room and watches the Avengers and their surprise at their teammate.

‘ _I hope families are reunited, I hope we get it back and something like a normal version of the planet has been restored if there ever was such a thing. God, what a world. Universe now.  If you told me ten years ago that we weren’t alone, let alone, you know, to this extent, I mean, I wouldn’t have been surprised but come on, the epic forces of dark and light that have come into play and for better or worse, that’s the reality Morgan’s gonna have to find a way to grow up in._

She looked to her father and watched him take in the message. His face was made of stone and his eyes of some emotion she couldn’t place. Fear? Denial? Sadness?

‘ _So I thought I better record a little greeting in the case of an untimely death on my part. I mean, not that death at any time isn’t untimely. This time travel thing we’re gonna try and pull off tomorrow, it’s got me scratching my head about the survivability of it all. Then again that’s the hero gig. Part of the journey is the end. What am I even tripping for? Everything’s gonna work out exactly the way it’s supposed to…’_

The hologram of Tony looked down at his daughter and gave her a beautiful smile. ‘ _I love you 3000.’_

The blue light cut off he was gone.

Turning to the younger version of the father they locked gazes just a moment. He’s shaken, she can tell, and with wide eyes, he stands from his seat and stumbles from the room, Dr. Banner following behind a second later. Her body tenses and all she wants is to chase after him but she stays still. Afraid to move. Closing her eyes she pushes away the hurt at his departure and folds forward just a touch.  Forcing his terrified face from her mind she focuses on the hologram and plays it over and over in her mind.

‘ _I love you 3000.’_

‘ _I love you 3000.’_

‘ _I love you 3000.’_

The sound of a throat clearing pulled her from the repeating phrase and she looked up with tired eyes to see Captain America staring down at her.

“I believe you,” he finally says and looks to the other Avengers in the room before looking back at her. “What can we do?”

 

**Author's Note:**

> I outlined this over an hour and just started writing it. It's unbeta'd. I probably switch tenses and have so many mistakes but this was honestly for me. I just needed to write a happy ending for Tony because fuck Endgame and the shitty way they treated him. This will be three chapters and I'm almost done with them both. The whole thing should be complete in a couple of days.


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